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How long does it take to learn French? | ||
Tags: Time to learn | French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Jurga Triglot Newbie Lithuania Joined 5241 days ago 19 posts - 24 votes Speaks: Lithuanian*, English, Latvian Studies: German, Arabic (classical), French | Message 1 of 21 13 August 2012 at 12:58am | IP Logged | ||
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Hello everyone, well, my question is not as stupid as it might sound at the first
sight:) So, I'm considering applying for studies in Belgium with this Erasmus program. All or most of my studies would be in French, it would start on February. The only thing that worries me (apart from huuge living expenses:)) is whether I'll be able to master my French skills in these 5 months. I'm not an absolute beginner and I'm already learning it myself but at the moment I know very little. When I think that I've been learning English (in which I'm so far closest to fluent, compared with other foreign languages I know )for so long and I'm still facing difficulties , and remember all these people saying: "French...but it's so hard' and realize that it's not that I'll just be living in francophone environment but also have to write exams, academic papers, understand the lecturers and speak myself (I'm studying social sciences by the way), I get really scared. On the other hand, it seems I'll be having some French courses there as well, and language knowledge increases rapidly when you hear it everywhere around and learn at the same time. And this short term, well, I might have little time but a great courage and motivation to learn. So,j'espère que vous comprenez mon souci:) Do you think these 5 months would be enough? Have you had similar experiences? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5336 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes  Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 21 13 August 2012 at 6:01am | IP Logged | ||
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Since nobody has answered yet, I'll chip in with my two cents here. I managed to take
my French from a self-assessed A2+ to a B2 certificate in 4 months. In theory, this would permit me to take university classes in France. So, yeah, I think you can be ready by February, because I've done something similar. But you'll have to work pretty hard. First of all, don't be intimidated by French. It seems hard at the beginning because the spelling and pronunciation are weird. But you already know quite a bit of English, so in the long run, French will be easy. It shares an enormous amount of vocabulary with English, and the verb system is simpler than some of the other Romance languages. Second, how hard will you have to work? Well, you're trying to cram almost 10 years of typical US French classes into 5 months. So this isn't a matter of spending 40 minutes with a grammar workbook every night. It's going to need to be a major lifestyle change. Here's a rough schedule which will give you an idea: - 2 hours of high-quality study per day. This is looking stuff up in dictionaries, rewinding the same audio clip a zillion times, writing on lang-8, and looking up grammar questions. - 2 hours of medium-quality study per day. This is paying close attention to French text, audio or TV, and trying to understand as much as you can. - Lots of 10-minute blocks of Anki reviews. Figure on learning at least 20 new cards per day, and maybe more like 30+ (which is hard core after a couple of months). - As many hours of passive exposure as you can manage. Internet radio, rap music, French TV, whatever. - A lot of French conversation. Now, you might need more or less time, or a different breakdown. But if you want to go from "very little" French to taking university classes in French by next February, you're going to need get a bit obsessive for a while. 12 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Anno Triglot Newbie Israel acquiringkorean.word Joined 5433 days ago 29 posts - 41 votes Speaks: English, Korean, Dutch Studies: Turkish, Mongolian, Modern Hebrew, French | Message 3 of 21 13 August 2012 at 9:51am | IP Logged | ||
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I would suggest using Duolingo as well. I didn't know any French when I've
started but I've found it very helpful (and fun!). -- Hebrew Learning Blog Korean Learning Blog "The key to success is making a million mistakes. . now let's make as many as fast as we can!" Edited by Anno on 13 August 2012 at 9:52am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| FELlX Diglot Groupie France Joined 4574 days ago 94 posts - 149 votes Speaks: French*, English | Message 4 of 21 13 August 2012 at 10:13am | IP Logged | ||
It's always hard to start a new language from scratch... Unlike English, French appears very hard from the begining, but then the difficulty will decrease as you study it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Majka Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic kofoholici.wordpress Joined 4461 days ago 307 posts - 755 votes Speaks: Czech*, German, English Studies: French Studies: Russian | Message 5 of 21 13 August 2012 at 10:36am | IP Logged | ||
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One more tip for you - it may be easier to learn French through English, switching in your native language only in parts of your study. At least for me, all the grammar and lot of the vocabulary is much easier from English then from Czech.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4511 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 6 of 21 13 August 2012 at 11:08am | IP Logged | ||
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The golden rule - the more time you spend on it, the sooner you'll see rewards. So how
long it takes is entirely up to you. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6707 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 7 of 21 13 August 2012 at 11:41am | IP Logged | ||
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If it's of any consolation, understanding lectures is relatively easy, and most probably
you won't pass any exams or write academic papers right in the beginning. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5336 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 21 13 August 2012 at 6:05pm | IP Logged | ||
If I had to start university classes in French this fall, my biggest fear would be listening comprehension and long written exams. I already know from taking the DELF B2 that I can read and write under pressure, and that I can give rudimentary presentations. Homework would take me at least 3 times as long as a native speaker. So, anything I could do outside of class would be painfully hard, but possible. But my listening comprehension is still unreliable: I can go from understanding everything to catching only the general gist of a conversation, typically due to accents, casual speech between natives, and specialized vocabulary. So if I would up in a class with a professor who mumbled, in a regional accent, and who tested us on material from the lectures, I'd be in serious trouble. Basically, to do university-level work with B2 language skills, you're going to need some support from the university (easier classes, professors who speak clearly, classes aimed at FLE students, or whatever), and you're going to need to work really hard. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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